S.C. State receives $4.5 million federal agriculture grant

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) - South Carolina State University has received a $4.5 million U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service grant to be used for climate smart initiatives.

According to a press release from the university, this grant will be used to facilitate a partnership between the S.C. State University 1890 Research & Extension Program, Mixon Seed and the S.C. Black Farmer Coalition that will educate and train the state’s small and minority farmers and producers in climate-smart practices.

“The project will use SC State 1890 Extension agents to recruit small-scale, limited resource and underserved farmers in South Carolina who are interested in adopting and implementing best management practices to grow climate-smart commodities, such as leafy greens and cover crops,” S.C. State provost and vice president for academic affairs Frederick Evans said, “The recruited farmers will receive incentives for adopting climate-smart and conservation agriculture practices.”

Through the 1890 Research & Extension Program in partnership with Mixon Seed and South Carolina Black Farmers Coalition, S.C. State says they share an opportunity to make a mark in enhancing the lives of the state’s underserved and socially disadvantaged farmers.

Louis Whitesides, vice president for public service and agriculture and executive director of the 1890 Research & Extension program says “a key advantage of having the private sector partner in public service is that it allows universities to contrate on intellectual ideas and in problem-solving as well as planning, policy and regulation.”

“The private sector, in turn, is empowered to do what it does best and improve the efficiency and quality of service,” Whitesides said.

University officials say the private sector part of that equation is represented by Mixon Seed Service, a 50-year-old, Orangeburg-based company that produces seed varieties for such field crops as wheat, oats and soybeans, as well as wildlife blends and cover crops.

The $4.5 million initiative followed the announcement in October of a $70 million USDA investment into S.C. State’s partnership with Clemson University to provide incentives to South Carolina farmers in implementing climate-smart production.

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